Through the Judge’s Eyes Sue Carson
When you trot down the centre line at your first affiliated dressage competition, it’s a real achievement, but even if you’re a more seasoned campaigner taking a step up the levels, earning every mark possible usually isn’t as easy as it seemed in your last training session. To help you prepare for your next competition, List 1 dressage judge, grand prix rider and trainer, Sue Carson explains some of the basics to think about and gives a unique insight into riding a dressage test ‘Through The Judge’s Eyes’.....
If you’ve been used to competing in unaffiliated classes, the first things you’ll notice about a British Dressage affiliated competition is how well turned-out the horses and riders are, the way their day seems organised yet relaxed and that they have a wellrehearsed warm-up programme for their horses. All of this is the end result of a lot of planning, which starts when entries are made on an official entry form, complete with membership numbers, horse registration numbers, which section of the class(es) you are entering and the correct entry fees. Work out how long your trip to the competition venue will take and plan to arrive with plenty of time to find out where the competition arenas are, where the warm-up arenas are, the scoreboards and who the steward is, as he or she will know whether the competition is running to time - which will help you decide when you are going to start your warm up. Be sure you know what you should be wearing, that both your horse and you are clean and tidy on the day, very well turned-out and check that your horse’s tack is ‘legal’ as defined in the British Dressage rulebook. Decide beforehand, with your trainer’s help, how you will warm-up your horse and ideally have more than one option, as the weather conditions, other riders and the ‘atmosphere’ of a show, particularly a busy one, can significantly influence how a horse behaves and how responsive/relaxed he is. If you are new to competitions, do remember the ‘rules of the school’ and that when you warm-up with other riders you must always ride ‘left to left’, don’t walk on the outside track and don’t just trot round like a ‘rabbit in headlights’. If your horse is lacking confidence or is over-excited, then you need to have a plan and work to it. When it’s your turn to ride your test, remember to remove the horse’s boots and my advice is always to use a caller for your test, unless you are at a Championship where tests must be ridden from memory. Why? Because, although you should still have learnt the test, having a caller gives you more ability to concentrate on what you and your horse are doing, not on where you are going next. When you present your horse in a test, start by riding straight at the judge down the centre line, don’t aim at ‘C’, as the judge can’t see ‘C’! You should have already taught your horse in schooling sessions at home to use the arena properly - it has four straight sides and four corners, circles are round and turns are not. Ride with the same discipline in a test and you will avoid throwing marks away for inaccuracy, which a surprising number of riders do at every competition. Remember that you need to prepare for transitions; it takes me six strides to prepare a downward
transition and at preliminary and novice level, it is more important to maintain rhythm, balance and ‘fluency’ than to make a transition ‘exactly’ at the marker. To do downward transitions well, your horse must be in front of your leg, which means he must be ‘taking’ you forward - yes, even in a downward transition he must go forward into the new pace. At novice level, when the test requires a few strides of medium trot, don’t fire your horse onto the diagonal like a lump of toothpaste out of a tube develop the medium trot and think about rhythm and balance. On the same theme, don’t fire your horse out of halt into trot. Then when you make a transition back from medium trot - yes, the judge will be looking for that transition back as it’s part of the movement, your hips must swing ‘forward’ with the movement, not backwards and not ‘blocking’ the movement. After your test, when your horse is un-tacked, relaxed and comfortable, it’s time to look at the scoreboard and when the class is finished, to colle